Tieman
Releases Two New Sculptures in "Hands of the Artists" Collection
at Stormy Weather Arts Festival

CANNON BEACH, OREGON – Pacific
Northwest painter and sculptor Michael Tieman has completed
his next two sculptures in his “Hands of the Artists” collection; “The
Weaver” , and “The Wine Thief.” Tieman
will unveil these two new pieces on Saturday at 1:15pm at Haystack
Gallery in Cannon Beach , thus completing the first six sculptures
in the “Hands of the Artists” collection which also
includes; “The Glassblower” , “The
Stone Sculptor” , “The Painter” ,
and “The Poet” .

The “Hands of the Artists” collection
is unique in that is a collaborative creation by two artists,
each producing a one-of-a-kind single piece of sculpture.” says
Tieman. “I sculpt the figure of an artist at the moment of
creation, and cast that figure in bronze. Another artist chosen
for the piece then creates an original second art piece which
is the completed creation.

“The Glassblower”

“The Stone Sculptor”

“The Poet”

“The Painter”

"The Wine Thief"

"The Weaver"

“The series has proved popular and the interest
has been high as people have started to experience the scope,
uniqueness and fun of the collection,” says Tieman. “It is
a joy to spend time with people explaining not only the background
and creation story of the first six, but also about the other
pieces in the collection. In the beginning I had six in the
collection, after talking to people who have seen the “Artists” I
now have fifteen. The collection has taken on a life of its
own, and that makes it fun.”

“The Weaver” – NEW

The fifth artist and one of the newest in
the “ Hands of the Artist” collection is “The Weaver”.
This piece captures the beauty of the weavings of Mayan women
using a traditional back strap loom. The back strap loom, invented
by the ancient Mayans was once used throughout Southwestern
U.S. , Mexico and South America but is now used only in a few
rural areas of Guatemala . The back strap loom has a rope at
one end so it can be tied to a post or tree and has a strap
at the other end that is placed around the woman's waist as
she sits on the ground and weaves. Weaving on a back strap
loom is tedious work and individual pieces may take up to several
months. The uniqueness of this sculpture is that the loom is
an actual working back strap loom with a weaving started and
made by Guatemalan artists to the same scale as my sculpture.
Each of the ten in the limited edition of “The Weaver” will
have a one-of-a –kind, hand-made loom with a weaving started
on it and included will also be a full size runner weaving
from the weavers in one of the small towns in Guatemala.

“The Wine Thief” – NEW

My sixth artist in the “ Hands of the
Artist” collection is “The Wine Thief”. Here I have
captured the master artist, the winemaker at work. Part of
the art of this master is determining when the wine is right.
Through the use of the Wine Thief pipette the master tests
the wine from the barrels. This sculpture includes a vine
which wraps around the artist, thus we have the beginning
and the end of the wine making art. Part of this piece is
a bottle of fine wine from a select vineyard in the Pacific
Northwest for your wine cellar.

The first sculpture in the collection is “The
Glassblower”. I watched Suzanne Kindland, a local glassblower
work, and discussed with her the glassblowing process. I then
sculpted the figure of an artist blowing glass, at that moment
of creation, and when Suzanne saw the completed figure, she
blew a special glass vase that the bronze glassblower figure
sits on, the completed creation. This is also a very unique
piece, in that it is a hard metal bronze figure looking as
though she is balanced on a delicate hand blown glass vase,
and in this case both pieces were born from fire.

“The Stone Sculptor”

My second artist in the Hands of the Artists
collection is “The Stone Sculptor”. This one is very special
to me because I did both sculpture pieces. My intent was to
have a second artist, a stone sculptor, complete the stone
piece, but as I was working on the clay of the artist figure,
a couple who collect my work asked me to also do the stone
carving for their piece. How can an artist refuse? It was quite
an experience as I had never carved in stone before. I was
always told each piece of stone has a creation in it waiting
to be released, but in the beginning I could not see the image
in the stone. When the clay artist figure was completed the
creation in the stone was revealed. The stone in #1/10 turned
out to be an abstract piece, a mirror image of the artist carving
herself in the stone. The stone in #2/10 is an alabaster stone
carved as a more traditional figure.

“The Poet”

“The Poet” is the third artist in the collection.
The artist is teetering back on a high four legged stool, head
cocked to the side with half used pencils stuck randomly in
her hair. The scroll of paper she is writing on (actually cast
in bronze) is wrapped around her and the chair then folds into
a book sitting on the floor under the stool. The book is a
hardcover book which contains the original poem written by “The
Poet”. The poet is David Sweet, a successful Tacoma , Washington
writer and poet. The uniqueness of this piece is continued
in that I will carve into the scroll the opening stanza of
each buyer's favorite poem, then I will cast it into bronze.

“The Painter”

The fourth artist in the “Hands of the
Artists” collection is “The Painter”. This piece forever
captures the excitement, passion, elegance and frenzy of
a plein-air painter. Schlepping all of their supplies to
sometimes remote locations, fighting the elements, the bugs
and sometimes the wildlife, these painters have just a few
precious hours to create their masterpiece before they lose
the special light they came for. The bronze piece includes
a bronze easel and the buyer of the piece can have Michael
Tieman, Sean Conrad or Sally O'Neill paint an original painting
that sits on the easel and looks like has been painted by
the bronze artist.”

About Michael Tieman

As Michael Tieman sees it, “The role of an
artist from the dawn of time has been as a visual storyteller.
The stories my paintings and sculptures tell are ones of confidence,
strength, passion, playful sophistication and the celebration
of life.”

Tieman has sketched and painted since childhood
and has spent almost four decades as a working artist, both
as a graphic designer and a fine artist. Following the encouragement
of a friend and gallery owner, Michael recently expanded his
talents into sculptures cast in bronze. Tieman's sculptures
are unique in that they are a combination of traditional figurative
sculpture and his Impressionistic painting style. “I create
my bronze sculpture as a three dimensional painting; texture
is the impasto brushstroke, color is the play of light and
shadows across the surfaces, and detail is the free style movement
of the impressionist style. My ladies have a face with a chiseled
jaw and high cheekbones, producing great shadows, and the athletic
body and proud confidence of an Amazon warrior. ”